| Danial Norjidi |
THE Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has introduced a new business-to-business platform for enabling cross-border trade among underrepresented but economically vital micro, small, and medium enterprises in the Asia-Pacific.
According to a news release, the APEC Micro, Small and Medium Size Enterprise (MSME) Marketplace showcases small firms from APEC member economies and helps to connect them with compatible production and supply chain partners. It also details tariffs and trade regulations as well as provides a portal to support services to help small businesses in the region build their trading operations.
The ‘APEC MSME Marketplace’ is an interactive repository of APEC activities and member economies’ individual efforts as a tool to promote cooperation and linkages across MSMEs and other stakeholders with interest in MSME development.
The initiative is an online portal which has the following functionalities: facilitating business matching for MSMEs, funders, innovation centres, incubators, and other stakeholders with interest on MSME development; providing information about international trade standards and regulations; disseminating information on available trade promotion assistance packages that APEC economies individually or collectively provide for MSME development and internationalisation; and building networks and linkages among the MSMEs, academe, innovation centres, and other relevant stakeholders that have a shared interest to foster MSME participation in regional and global supply chains and markets as they participate in global trade.
“There are a huge range of market opportunities for micro enterprises all around the Asia-Pacific, particularly with advances in mobile technology and e-commerce,” said Philippine Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M Lopez, who announced the opening of the platform endorsed by APEC SME Ministers.
“The APEC Marketplace will make it easier for small businesses to trade and, in the process, boost their competitiveness and growth capacity in the region,” continued Secretary Lopez. “The benefits of wider participation in trade could be very significant for APEC economies and our people’s livelihoods.”
The news release goes on to note that the platform caters to small firms that account for nearly all businesses and the majority of employment in the APEC region, and have substantial room for export growth. They range from handicraft suppliers in Luzon, to auto and machinery parts producers in Ohio, Nagoya and Ho Chi Minh City, to coffee growers and processors in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
APEC economies aim to grow the APEC Marketplace’s directory of small businesses with export potential and, in turn, open up market opportunities for these firms in the Asia-Pacific through business matching with companies seeking value-adding goods and services suppliers.
It is part of APEC’s implementation of the Iloilo Initiative for growing global micro, small and medium enterprises, endorsed by the region’s SME Ministers there in 2015 and supported by parallel efforts underway to unlock small business trade.
“Micro enterprises have to be interconnected with the rest of the world on account of the fact that it has become one village. We don’t want small businesses and the communities that depend on them to be left behind,” explained Papua New Guinea’s Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Wera Mori.
“Now that we are in the digital age, people must be enabled to come out from local areas and export what they can produce domestically out to markets in the Asia-Pacific and beyond,” he concluded. “We are working in APEC to help people find formal employment through small businesses that are developed and integrated.”
Users of the APEC MSME Marketplace are encouraged to provide feedback to improve the platform in line with the region’s evolving trading conditions.
APEC is a regional economic forum established in 1989 and has 21 members (including Brunei Darussalam). APEC aims to create greater prosperity for the people of the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration.
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